


Life After You

by tawg



Category: DCU, Teen Titans, Young Justice
Genre: M/M, Sidekicks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-20
Updated: 2009-11-20
Packaged: 2017-10-03 10:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tawg/pseuds/tawg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are always people who get left behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life After You

Preston knows he shouldn't be surprised when Bart and Carol just… aren't around any more. He's upset, and angry, and alone, and he wants to punch something and yell and maybe cry and hunt them both down and just hug them until their skin merges them into one person.

Because friends just don't _do_ that to one another.

And Preston goes though the rest of high school as a bit of a loner, and he's so damn keen to get out of Alabama he spends most of his senior year studying until his insides explode and writing scholarship essays. Which is boring as all hell, but it works. He gets a scholarship at MetU, and he doesn't look back.

He knows from a brief stint on the school paper that he doesn't really like journalism. But he's good at watching things, and making opinions, and he catches things that other people don't. So he does a degree in media studies, thinking maybe he can work in an editing room for soap operas or something equally mundane.

Except Metropolis has a lot of newspapers, and going back through archives he finds some references to a San Fran paper. And going through those archives, he finds a whole heap of pictures. And even though there was world saving going on, and even though it's kind of cool, and even though it's a really stupid idea, he just wants to hit Bart until his face swells up. He gets so angry his nose bleeds.

And there's another boy who spends time pouring over old newspapers. He's also in some of Preston's courses, saying he wants to work in the office of Film and Literature Classification, and then laughing. He's blond too, and also on a scholarship, and when he offers Preston a tissue, Preston figures maybe he's been a loner for long enough.

It turns out, after some conversation, that Preston and Bernard had actually met before, on a ski trip. Preston can remember the girl with Bernard, Ariana, and some other guy who got lost with Bart. Apparently the girl isn't around anymore, and the guy dropped off the face of the earth, and Preston wonders if maybe he was cloned a while back without anyone telling him.

Bernard knows all the good coffee shops, and all the cheap coffee shops, and the few that overlap. And although Bernard knows everyone, he seems to spend a lot of time alone, pouring over newspapers. And one time when Preston's rushing to the bathroom because of another nosebleed, he crashes into Bernard in the hallway, and books tumble and a folder falls open, and all these photocopies of photos and actual photos and what looks like some police reports go flying everywhere.

That night, Preston takes Bernard to his room, and shows him the whole wall covered in Impulse stuff, and Kid Flash stuff, and all the Titans and Young Justice stuff. And Bernard laughs about how they're sidekicks to sidekicks, and then his lips are on Preston's, and Preston's being shoved up against the wall he just wants to hug and punch and rage at, and he can feel the hard nubs of all those pins digging into his shoulder blades.

And maybe he should be weirded out, because Bernard's a guy. Except Preston's spent a lot of time being a loner, and a lot of time being lonely, and when he clutches at Bernard's back a hand starts fumbling with his fly, and Bernard mumbles a name that isn't Preston against his skin, and Preston thinks that's fine because when he squeezes his eyes shut it's not Bernard he's thinking of either.

And they tumble to the carpet in a shower of torn newspaper articles, and rumpled clothes, and kisses that are hot and fast and maybe Preston's nose is bleeding but he doesn't care.

Because he's not alone.


End file.
